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Hi there, new user here. I'll be grateful for any advice. Phew so...issue is this. Our neighbours have always been obnoxious to everyone who has lived here in our house (we know from previous owners and others in the neighbourhood). Aside from just being very sad and bitter people, they are incredibly territorial. I respect their right to their own land but want to know where this boundary begins and ends. The situation:
- We have to drive over a square of land owned by them in order to get to our own drive way.
- They have a strip of driveway alongside our drive that looks exactly the same, side by side. So imagine two strips- 3/4 is owned by them, 1/4 by us, but we have a right of way over the other 1/4 of our strip that we have to drive over to get to our 1/4. I can only assume this is because the extra 1/4 owned by them is outside the front of their house, but it has no functional value to them- they obv can't park on it as we have a ROW, and it doesn't block their walking in and out of the house.
- People obv frequently misunderstand when they turn up and park on this 1/4 and figure we have 2x spaces. They get shouted at by the neighbours. We are VERY careful to tell delivery drivers, friends etc not to park there and instead to park in the road (a disruption to the cul de sac but nothing I can do about that...). All I can say is that where previous occupants have used the "go forth and multiply" strategy, we have been pleasant and not shouted at any point and tried to respect their desire for privacy. This respect has sometimes been reciprocated, but then he just flips and shouts at me or my wife for eg delivery drivers coming, me rolling my bin across a corner of his patio to bring it back etc.
- This is all a source of stress but largely fine...until we have submitted for planning permission for a side extension. This extension is in the very corner of our plot, so NOT adjoining to their property or anyone else's. It is right out the way. They obv oppose it and have written to the council as such. The issue is twofold: 1) What right we have to have deliveries coming through the easement area onto our drive; 2) What right he has to use obstructions to make our driveway- practically speaking- unusable.
- First, 2): They intend to squeeze us by making our driveway slot impossible to use practically speaking. So they have already placed a small fence on one part (perpendicular to our strip, not alongside it) where we open our door, and they have told us they will put more fencing up both at the front of their house (alongside our driveway) and in the middle of the two strips (alongside on the other side). The strips are only 2.5m wide, so this would make it unusable as a drive, esp with getting our toddlers in and out of the car. Already today he has moved 4 very large plant pots to the very edge of their front patio, which makes it v hard to open the car door on our property. This is no doubt in prep for extension deliveries, the wheels of which might go over to his patio by eg 10cm (literally), but also as a sort of tit for tat I suppose.
- Then 1) It will also make it very hard to make deliveries eg bricks, or put a skip on the part of the drive we actually own (but obv skip lorry would have to pause on the easement area to pick up, and a wheel of it would go onto his drive strip to be fair). Fair enough- I'm happy to use grab bags instead and not put a skip on our owned drive space to be accommodating to him, I know building works can be stressful. That would mean a grab truck could stay wholly within our strip but would have to place one extender stabiliser on his side. He says..."No. Not my problem" Suffice to say, reasonable negotiation seems a non starter here.
This is complicated by the language of the restrictive covenants which I reproduce here:
Both our obligations: "Not to erect in front of the buildings erected on the property any other hedges, walls, fences, gates, or other form of continuous sub division or any building whatsoever whether permanent, portable or sectional"
And the easement:
Our obligation: "Not to cause or permit to be caused (as far as the same shall lie within the control of the Transferee) any parking of any vehicle and not cause or permit to be caused (as far as aforesaid) any other obstruction of whatsoever nature upon any part of the said land coloured blue [ie their 1/4 over which we have right of way] other than that which is necessary and immediately incidental to travelling over the said land coloured blue"
Their obligation: "To give a right of way at all times with or without vehicles over and along the land coloured blue not comprised in [our] property subject to the payment of a fair proportion of the cost of upkeep and maintenance thereof"
So questions:
- Does their little 2 ft fence break the above?
- Do their plant pots- which make it very hard to open our car doors to get in or out- break the above?
- If so, are these covenants practically enforceable?
- Do we have a right to have deliveries made on the drive space- given it says "which is necessary and immediately incidental to travelling over the said land"?
- We obv don't want to get into legal battles- apart from anything else, we'd not be able to sell the house afterwards. Any advice on how to go about our business but also make sure we keep our space usable?!!
So sorry this is so lengthy, and thanks in advance for any help at all
- We have to drive over a square of land owned by them in order to get to our own drive way.
- They have a strip of driveway alongside our drive that looks exactly the same, side by side. So imagine two strips- 3/4 is owned by them, 1/4 by us, but we have a right of way over the other 1/4 of our strip that we have to drive over to get to our 1/4. I can only assume this is because the extra 1/4 owned by them is outside the front of their house, but it has no functional value to them- they obv can't park on it as we have a ROW, and it doesn't block their walking in and out of the house.
- People obv frequently misunderstand when they turn up and park on this 1/4 and figure we have 2x spaces. They get shouted at by the neighbours. We are VERY careful to tell delivery drivers, friends etc not to park there and instead to park in the road (a disruption to the cul de sac but nothing I can do about that...). All I can say is that where previous occupants have used the "go forth and multiply" strategy, we have been pleasant and not shouted at any point and tried to respect their desire for privacy. This respect has sometimes been reciprocated, but then he just flips and shouts at me or my wife for eg delivery drivers coming, me rolling my bin across a corner of his patio to bring it back etc.
- This is all a source of stress but largely fine...until we have submitted for planning permission for a side extension. This extension is in the very corner of our plot, so NOT adjoining to their property or anyone else's. It is right out the way. They obv oppose it and have written to the council as such. The issue is twofold: 1) What right we have to have deliveries coming through the easement area onto our drive; 2) What right he has to use obstructions to make our driveway- practically speaking- unusable.
- First, 2): They intend to squeeze us by making our driveway slot impossible to use practically speaking. So they have already placed a small fence on one part (perpendicular to our strip, not alongside it) where we open our door, and they have told us they will put more fencing up both at the front of their house (alongside our driveway) and in the middle of the two strips (alongside on the other side). The strips are only 2.5m wide, so this would make it unusable as a drive, esp with getting our toddlers in and out of the car. Already today he has moved 4 very large plant pots to the very edge of their front patio, which makes it v hard to open the car door on our property. This is no doubt in prep for extension deliveries, the wheels of which might go over to his patio by eg 10cm (literally), but also as a sort of tit for tat I suppose.
- Then 1) It will also make it very hard to make deliveries eg bricks, or put a skip on the part of the drive we actually own (but obv skip lorry would have to pause on the easement area to pick up, and a wheel of it would go onto his drive strip to be fair). Fair enough- I'm happy to use grab bags instead and not put a skip on our owned drive space to be accommodating to him, I know building works can be stressful. That would mean a grab truck could stay wholly within our strip but would have to place one extender stabiliser on his side. He says..."No. Not my problem" Suffice to say, reasonable negotiation seems a non starter here.
This is complicated by the language of the restrictive covenants which I reproduce here:
Both our obligations: "Not to erect in front of the buildings erected on the property any other hedges, walls, fences, gates, or other form of continuous sub division or any building whatsoever whether permanent, portable or sectional"
And the easement:
Our obligation: "Not to cause or permit to be caused (as far as the same shall lie within the control of the Transferee) any parking of any vehicle and not cause or permit to be caused (as far as aforesaid) any other obstruction of whatsoever nature upon any part of the said land coloured blue [ie their 1/4 over which we have right of way] other than that which is necessary and immediately incidental to travelling over the said land coloured blue"
Their obligation: "To give a right of way at all times with or without vehicles over and along the land coloured blue not comprised in [our] property subject to the payment of a fair proportion of the cost of upkeep and maintenance thereof"
So questions:
- Does their little 2 ft fence break the above?
- Do their plant pots- which make it very hard to open our car doors to get in or out- break the above?
- If so, are these covenants practically enforceable?
- Do we have a right to have deliveries made on the drive space- given it says "which is necessary and immediately incidental to travelling over the said land"?
- We obv don't want to get into legal battles- apart from anything else, we'd not be able to sell the house afterwards. Any advice on how to go about our business but also make sure we keep our space usable?!!
So sorry this is so lengthy, and thanks in advance for any help at all
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